UPA must wake up to Chinese intrusions in AP: BJP

Published: Tuesday, November 20, 2007, 19:35 [IST]

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New Delhi, Nov 20 (UNI) The BJP today cautioned the UPA Government to take Chinese intrusions in Arunachal Pradesh very seriously, failing which it would be too late to keep its territorial sovereignity intact in the region.

After two BJP MPs from Arunachal Pradesh apprised media persons of the ground situation along the McMohan Line, senior party leader Arun Shourie pointed out that China still mantained Twang district in this north-eastern state to be part of Tibet's Autonomous Region.

He also added that China's refusal to accept Arunachal Pradesh as an Indian state is a dangerous sign.

Mr Shourie, who was the Disinvestment Minister in the Vajpayee government, recalled that before annexing Aksai Chin during the 1962 war, the Chinese had showed the state as a part of their territory in its maps.

Earlier, party MPs from Arunachal Pradesh, Tapir Gao and Kiren Rijiju disclosed that it was not long ago that the Indian Army had started making helicopter sorties in the evening in the icy heights of the Himalayan border, where earlier such surveillance was not carried out after 1600 hrs.

The MPs further added that now that an Army general and a top Indo-Tibetean Border Police (ITBP) official have publicly admitted of Chinese intrusions in the eastern sector of India's border with China, it is high time the for the government to step up vigil and set up an extensive infrastructure in Arunachal Pradesh to foil any nefarious design by the neighbouring country.

Criticising the UPA government for what he described as having outsourced the country's foreign policy as indicated by its engagements in Nepal, Bangladesh and Pakistan, Mr Shourie wondered if it has outsourced the case of China to the CPI(M).